Jacob’s Aero Bicycle Thread

[JacobLeSann]

Was told way back to post my velomobile project on here, but I’m so scatterbrained that I forgot up until now.

I’ve got a 23km commute on open highway in a large valley. On warm, calm days it’s beautiful; but those are rare. For the most part it’s a challenge at best. I’ve rode through hail, thunderstorms, wind storms, snow, ice, etc. But that’s just me flexin . I currently ride my homebuilt Roadrunner recumbent bike, which I built to use the group set from my cheap road bike. Does what I need, but it’s very clumsy in traffic and it lacks much ability to handle adverse conditions.

Enter the Landspeeder! Been an on-and-off project for the past year and a half. I’m chopping and nodding my Terratrike Tour II into a low and narrow machine with a full suspension, and will be building a fairing ala the Trisled Completely Overzealous. I’m shooting for a lightweight and low drag machine with practical additions such as turn signals and headlights. Currently, I’m working on the cross-boom for the steering. The chassis is made by crudely FMAW welding 4130 chromoly onto the trike’s frame. I got a TIG torch but it was a dud and had no warranty so I’m in no mood to try again.

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1618592684

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1618592684

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1618592684

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1618592684

[freebeard]

I,,,will be building a fairing ala the Trisled Completely Overzealous

How will you deal with ingress/egress?

[JacobLeSann]

Sorry for the pictures being askew, it’s tricky to use this site on my tiny phone.

Here’s a pic of my bike as well:
https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1618593972

Its definitely road cycling meets luge and it’s as fun as it is fast. I ended up making it too tall, though. I stalled my civic at every stop learning stick, and I fell over on my bike at those same stops. If anything, it shows that my crummy flux core welds can be trusted.

[JacobLeSann]

My buddy is insistent that 2.75” of ground clearance is enough. My dad’s VMAX has about 3” from the ground to the bottom of the engine, so I’m thinking I’ll be alright. Worst comes to worst, I’ll hop out and pull it. Bolting on a little ring onto the end would make that pretty straightforward. Getting to work should be fine, but my driveway is definitely a minefield. Time will tell.

I’m sure I won’t be matching the bottom of the C-O, just using it as an approximation for my final shape.

[JacobLeSann]

Coming back to this again. Did you mean ingress/egress as in entering and exiting the fairing or entering and exiting the highway? I’m confused.

[COcyclist]

Originally Posted by JacobLeSann

Coming back to this again. Did you mean ingress/egress as in entering and exiting the fairing or entering and exiting the highway? I’m confused.

I’ll take a shot and try to speak for Mr. free. I believe he means the fairing. When it is windy in the spring I have considered a project like yours so I will be following. You will have to fit your body into the shell and perhaps close the fairing over you. I will be interested to see how you work this out.

[Grant-53]

Several issues are common in this type of vehicle. Pedal clearance with the ground or interior is needed. If running in snow then 4 or more inches, 100 mm, of ground clearance would be needed. Have someone with a good welder do the 4130 tubing. A body shell can be designed using the software at recumbents.com. Canopies on sailplanes hinge at the nose or one side. The ventilation air comes in at the base of windscreen and exits behind the head. There needs to be some way to stabilize at rest with a parking brake. Lights, mirror, lap belt, and some form of windshield wiper would be useful. I have found some useful information in "The Leading Edge" by Goro Tamai. Aerohead would know of other sources.

[JacobLeSann]

I’ve returned.

Plans mentioned in this thread have changed completely, so I’ll try to update everybody interested.

Firstly, I haven’t built the velomobile. Got busy once my car blew up. I finished the trike frame, to use for testing. It’s stability is leagues better than the original trike, but it has some problems with turning radius due to limited side-to-side clearance. The current steering design (which I’ve tried to copy off of other velomobile as), is unstable and squirrely, thanks to slop in the U-joint. I’ve tried to remove the slop with no results. The ground clearance hasn’t actually caused any issues yet, amazingly. Trike is very fast, but the steering is too sketchy above 25 km/h. I plan to try a H-bar like a Go-kart or F1 car, and if that doesn’t work I’ll try tank steering.

In more current news, I’m aeromodding a road bike! I love the Diamondback Andean and I want a rear rack, so I’m going to achieve both with some fibreglass and foam. I’ve built a set of steel airfoil bars with bullhorns and tri-bars. After that, I cut and zip-tied a bunch of cardboard onto the frame. The fairing seems to work well: I could cruise at 30-35 km/h with little effort. I maxed out at 53 km/h, as I’m much less capable lately. I’m waiting for stronger crosswinds, but so far it’s handled fine in 20 km/h winds. Overall turbulence noise was reduced. I should do a more sophisticated test, but don’t have any hills near me. I’ve ordered fiberglass, and will work on this when I can.

Beyond that, I’ll be building an Akira-inspired Lowracer recumbent bike. My road bike is really fun blasting through town streets, but a recumbent is far better for my highway commute. This will hopefully be a steel frame/fiberglass fairing build, with some limitations to make it more practical for commuting.

Once I’m done these two builds, I figure I’ll have honed all the skills needed to build the velomobile. At that point, I’ll finish the build. But that’s just a plan. See how it really goes.

Here’s some pics:






P.S. Mods, could you change the title to “Jacob’s Aero Bicycle Thread”? I figure this will leave the original topic.

[freebeard]

P.S. Mods, could you change the title...

Try a PM if they don't see this.

[JacobLeSann]

Well, pretty busy lately, but here’s what I’ve done so far:


My recumbent build. This is just an Atomic Zombie.com copy, so I won’t act like I came up with it myself. I set the seat a bit higher than it could be, to trade some aero for handling/stability. Current frame is light enough to lift with one hand.


This one isn’t a huge update, really. I stripped the frame down to bare aluminum, and I’ve bought a fibreglass kit. You’ll notice the bike has a tail: I didn’t have any special clamps for mounting a rack nor were there any proper holes on the frame so I just welded a piece of scrap to a seatpost I had. The tail fairing will mix poorly with the rear brake placement, so I’m going to make a bracket that lets me mount my brake where the kickstand was previously. From there, I can make a support strut to connect the “tail” to where the brake bolted in previously. This rear rack is suboptimal from a load-bearing standpoint, but I’m not gonna be loading it down too much anyway.


Here’s some doodles. I’m trying to lay out some ideas towards paint jobs/fairing shapes. The lowracer looks good, but the tailbox on the road bike is kinda bloated looking. I’d like to use black accents on a yellow base, as the tail reminds me of a wasp.